- Rise and shine, shoot the time!
I was awakened by the disgusting voice of the cave craftsman. His small head in comparison with his huge body hung over me, with a pronounced happy grimace, which, I admit honestly, was a little scary to look at, and a man from the Aral would have had time to pray to the gods three times as soon as he saw this face.
- You're not much of a poet. And what do you mean by "shoot the time"?
- My favorite expression. When I do something within a certain time frame, I try to get it done well before the deadline. Now my deadline was the moment you had to wake up. If only I knew you'd been dozing for so long...
Demons' sleep is extremely strange, I'm not used to it yet. Initially, I generally thought that sleep was not needed. It was a mistake. Fatigue is simply not felt, but this does not mean that it disappears somewhere. I immediately felt all the fatigue that had accumulated in me as soon as I lay down on this soft fur on the bed.
- Besides, shooting is your specialty.
- Are you finished with my order?
- If I woke you up, that must mean yes, right?
- Show it to me.
- There it is, in a vice, admire it.
On the Kagor's workbench, clamped in a vice, was my AA-12. It doesn't have any texture, and it doesn't need one. An elegant weapon. It looks a little unusual without the cartridge drum.
- I made you this weapon as payment for Bared, and for Friral I'm ready to say goodbye to the bracelet that's now on your hand.
This means there is no need to return it, which makes me happy. Carrying everything in hands is not very convenient.
- Are you sure I don't owe you anything? No debts, collateral, interest?
-Are you going to take it or not?
After looking at him for about five seconds with a straight face, I turned my gaze back to the shotgun. I walked over to the vice, loosened it with a little effort, and pulled out my new toy. It weighs five kilograms. It's good that I don't have to carry it in my hands. I immediately consumed the entire shotgun. The standard AA-12 drum is designed for 32 rounds, this limitation does not apply to me, I can shoot for an eternity.
- Great, I'm one step closer to getting out of here!
-Where are you going to go?
- Away from hell, to the "world of Aral".
- I shouldn't have made you this firearm. I can't give this to crazy people.
- Why would I suddenly be crazy?
- To get out of the underworld, you need to defeat the first 12 devils and our King!
- I'm aware of this. Charon spoke about this.
- Did he tell you that the devils you will have to fight are a hundred times stronger than the same white snakes that you have never even met?
- White snakes? What are you talking about?
- Charon is not a very useful source of information. He almost never gets out of his boat.
Apparently the situation is much more complicated than I planned.
- Is everything so complicated?
- Apparently, you still don't understand local customs. Let me explain.
- I listen to you carefully.
- When the great Creator formed the worlds and placed cores in them, he appointed a caretaker to each world who was supposed to rule this world. In our world - this is the King of Devils, in Paradise - the White Lord, whom you people call God, or Gods, as you please. In purgatory it is the Gray Warden, but in the Aral he left no one. The Supreme Lord is absent there, BUT, he left this world in the care of its own inhabitants, creating the so-called "United Mind". This mind distributes the thoughts of all the inhabitants of the Aral and directs them along a certain route. You call it "fate"...
Damn, I'm getting off topic. In general, the very first King of our world, purely physically and mentally, could not cope with everything that was in hell, so using his powers he created the first 12 devils, whom he distributed among the local territories of hell, where they became rulers. Over time, the "King" and the "First 12" became simple titles, still passed from devil to devil in ruling families. And believe me, over so many millennia their blood has not weakened much.
- So, they are extremely strong opponents...
- That's an understatement. They are extremely dangerous, especially for you today, even with a shotgun and at your speed you will not live in front of their eyes for even a second. In addition, they live very far from each other, and each area is different from the other: desert areas, icy wastelands, dead forests, and so on. And one of the First Devils is even the ruler of a great polis, whose population consists of demons and weaker devils. Remember, I told you about the delivery demons. So, they deliver orders, materials and further payment for labor from that policy for me. Also, thanks to them, I can order something for myself.
- Is there a way to defeat the twelve strongest? Maybe there is some kind of trick, or there are some secret traps on them?
- Which circus did you come here from? Devils are measured only by physical strength. Although, there are a couple of them who prefer mind games... But these are only two out of twelve! You just have to get stronger, gradually killing more and more powerful creatures, and only then try your hand at the greatest.
- Okay, my way out of here has moved away into an unknown abyss... Well, what should I start from?
- We already talked about the white snake.
I think it will be a great opponent for you.
- And if I eat it, will I get anything?
- What are you talking about now?
- Well, for example, I will become better at distinguishing temperatures, feeling vibrations, spitting poison?
- What kind of nonsense are you telling me? Neither demons nor devils can have such skills.
This means that this is purely my ability... This means that I absorb not only weapons, but also abilities... Isn't that a bit cheating?
- Let's leave the cave.
Kagor led me to the exit from his home; when we went outside, it was already starting to get dark, the night half of the cycle had begun. The blacksmith pointed his finger towards the horizon beyond the mountains.
-Behind these mountains where we are, there, in the distance, there is a dead forest. Large snakes live in it, and among them there is the strongest one - white. If you kill it, you will bring me it's skin. If you give me the materials, I'll make you a new gun. At the same time you will become stronger. Got it ?
- Probably. By the way, how can I contact you if something happens?
- Do you have a communication ring?
- Yep, here it is.
I extended my hand with the ring to Kagor. He grabbed it with two fingers, twisted it, and then released my hand.
- I wrote down my frequency in your ring. You rub the ring thinking that you want to contact me, and it will redirect the signal to me. This is how you will receive instructions. That's it, go, rapid fire.
I'll see, he and Charon have similar nicknames for me... At least, Kagor doesn't know about my nickname from the human world.
It's time to move out. Starting sharply from the cliff, I ran at all speeds towards the abode of the white snake.
***
While I was running, it became completely dark. Snakes are classified primarily as nocturnal predators, although given that they can go without food for up to a month, it is ambiguous whether they are nocturnal or diurnal. For a long time the mountains did not want to end, it seemed that they did not want me to continue my journey further. I had to stay among them. But my path is too important to me. I no longer care about becoming the boss of "13 Bullets", I'm not interested in doing earthly things. The only thing I want now is revenge. Revenge for my death.
After some time, the red hills ended, replaced by black, dirty, dried out trees, from which there was a whiff of death. The darkness was terrifying, the core of hell, which took on the semblance of a moon, was not very generous with light. I had to use my night vision. I won't run any further through the forest at full speed. Switching to walking, I began to go further into the thicket. There were few sounds in the forest. Only rare whistles, hisses, howls and roars pierced the local eternal deathly silence.
This is all very romantic, of course, but where can I look for this snake? I rubbed the ring, searching for answers.
- Kagor, can you hear me?
- *Yea, I can, well, did you find anything?*
- No idea yet. Tell me, what's the best way to find your snake? Are there any local animal trails or something like that?
- *Now it's time to molt. As far as I know, in the Aral snakes shed all their skin at once, but here the skin falls off gradually, scale by scale. Snakes cover vast territories and patrol them regularly. Try to walk, look at your feet, look for scales. They can put you on the trail.*
- Got it, thanks, see you later.
This means that I need to watch my step... as he said, snakes are big, which means the scales must be appropriate. As I walked around looking for clues, my silver ring began to vibrate strangely, so I rubbed it.
- *Don't you want to tell me anything important, you little bastard?*
- Charon? No, I don't want to say anything.
- *You don't even want to say that you completely said all sorts of angry things about me while you were sitting at Kagor's home?*
- I didn't say anything about you.
- Really ?! Do you think, my best friend, Kagor could just lie to me? Charon is a black asshole... He doesn't give me the information I need... Why am I even working with him?...
Damn artisan, he decided to play a joke? Moreover, both above me and above the boatman. Well, I'll try to get out of the conversation without any fuss.
- Charon, I have an urgent and dangerous matter now, I can't talk, for now, good eternity!
- *I haven't understood, what do you mean by "good eternity"?*
- You yourself told me that there are no dates, there is only eternity, that's it, farewell !
Miraculously, I avoided the conversation; I'll have to discuss this with Kagor later. Hmm, what is this? On the ground, under a huge fallen tree, lay a white plate measuring 30x20 centimeters. What a big snake... I noticed another scale, and yet, they all led in the same direction. I'll follow their trail, collecting scales along the way. I'll leave it in the bracelet as a trophy from the first planned hunt in hell. After two hours b.h.t. I wandered into such a thicket of forest that the tops of the local trees were not even visible. Truly titanic trees...
That's where I met my goal. A white snake with bright red eyes watched me, additionally keeping an eye on its eggs. So, in addition to molting, they also have a breeding season... Okay, there are only five eggs here. I'll eat one and take 4 to the master, let him decide what to do with them.
The snake is no longer going to tolerate my presence and makes a sharp lunge at me. I jump to the side, she makes a second attack, I jump onto a tree. I'm standing on a branch, the snake... lies on the ground and looks at my movements. Slowly opens its mouth... - -*Agh* Damn it!
Something flew into my eyes, some kind of corrosive acidic liquid... poison? I was not warned that this was a spitting snake! After a couple of moments, my vision returned. I looked down, the snake was not in its original place. She crawled towards me, wrapping her body in the shape of a spring around the tree, the snake slowly but confidently rose towards me. This creature is by no means stupid... When it approached me, I jumped onto the branch of another, neighboring tree. The snake began to slowly open its mouth again. I don't know when it'll shoot, and there's no point in jumping, it'll just jump on me and our race will continue. What to apply in this situation? ...wait a min... The snake fired a shot of poison, but before it reached me it disappeared. ZF is a cool thing, I think it will come in handy more than once, it's a pity that using it requires concentration...
The snake fired a couple more shots at me, but realizing that it was useless, it began to tighten its body, preparing to jump. Great, this is my chance! The snake jumped from tree to tree, its mouth wide open, during that moment I managed to pull the barrel out of my hand and fired five powerful shots into the snake's mouth. It fell to the ground with a great roar from a height of sixty meters. Thanks to Kagor for the upgrade. The AA-12 did not stick out much from my body, unlike pistols. The maximum that I needed to stick out was the muzzle itself, and the callimator sight for greater accuracy. I ran down the tree and began to examine my prey. Length - 50 meters, width - 1.5 meters. The weight is uncertain, I'll find out when I put it in the bracelet. Having searched the snake and the clutch, I discovered a small piece of meat from the snake, poison from the glands in the mouth, and the egg I had promised myself. I didn't really get anything from eating these products, except that my own blood tasted a little sour. Well, the reaction has improved a little. I expected more...
Having loaded the snake into the bracelet and learned that it weighs 3 tons, I also loaded the eggs, after which, at full speed, I ran to the artisan. Entering the cave, I didn't see Kagor working; he was just sitting on a stool and looking at the floor, unusual even for him.
- Kagor, the prey is with me.
- Great, well done, how did it go?
- Not bad at all, but you didn't warn me that the snake can spit venom.
- The enemy will never tell you about his abilities in advance. This was preparation for your future battles, in which you will be saved not only by brute force, but also by ingenuity.
- You're probably right.
- Pull out the little white reptile already, I want to look at it already.
I pulled the snake and eggs out of the bracelet and placed them in the same corner where I had put Bared.
- Eggs ? Where did you get the eggs from?
- They were in the nest, something wrong?
-You have no idea what you just did...
-Did I do something wrong?
- Vice versa ! These snakes are very rare, and their offspring are even rarer. Usually the eggs are eaten by other predators, but now that they're here... I can breed these snakes in captivity!
- It's just not worth opening a zoo here...
- Opening a zoo, or not, but I'm now provided with rare materials. So, we'll deal with the snake later. You are clearly tired after running around and fighting with the snake, rest. While you were away, I created another bed, the same one on which you already slept. This is now your new place to sleep.
I didn't expect such a push from him. Just a bed... Okay, although there is no fatigue, in fact, there is probably more than enough of it. I'll go and lie down.
- Kagor, what about you?
- I will also go to rest soon, go without me.
I found my new clean bed, collapsed in it and began to pass out.
It seems to me, or Kagor behaves with me more like a father, and not like a master ?